Singapore’s Ruling Party Wins Election
Singapore’s People’s Action Party was returned to power in Saturday’s general election, maintaining the political structure that has led the city-state since independence despite the toughest fight the opposition has ever mustered. In early results Sunday, the PAP, led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has won 81 of 87 parliamentary seats. Opposition parties, which collectively contested a record 82 seats, secured six seats. The poll was the most competitive since Singapore became a nation in 1965.
The PAP was always expected to win handily, but the election saw unprecedented competition for seats and an unusually spirited opposition drive. The election was seen as a vote on the ruling party’s economic policies, which evoked strong criticism on issues like rising housing and transport costs, the influx of foreign labor and widening income inequality.
Formed by Singapore’s category_iding architect, Lee Kuan Yew, the PAP has run the country for nearly half a century. In the last poll in 2006, the ruling party won 82 out of 84 seats with 67% of the popular vote. Prime Minister Lee, the founding father’s son, won his second poll since becoming premier in 2004. He campaigned on a theme that this election would usher in Singapore’s next generation of leaders, including a possible future prime minister. The win also provides a mandate for another generation of the PAP to carry on when 87-year-old Lee Kuan Yew is gone.